Miami: The two pilots of an Amazon cargo plane that overran the runway while landing at Miami International Airport, striking a van and killing five people, have been released from hospital, officials said Tuesday.
Three people are in hospital, two in critical condition and one stable, following Sunday’s accident, Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz said at a news conference.
Cordero-Stutz said the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was leading the investigation into the accident while the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office would conduct its own inquiry into the deaths on the ground.
NTSB chief Jennifer Homendy said officials were reviewing flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the plane.
Flight data released by investigators on Tuesday suggests the plane tried to abort a landing, before it tore through a perimeter fence and slammed into two vehicles.
NTSB investigator Chihoon Shin said the plane attempted to perform a “go-around” — a routine safety maneuver where a pilot stops a landing attempt and returns to the air to safely make another approach — before abandoning it.
The pilots then applied the brakes to try to stop the plane and put the throttle into idle, Shin said.
Homendy said the plane’s pilot and co-pilot, aged 55 and 37, would be interviewed on Wednesday.
The plane came to a halt about 1,300 feet (400 meters) past the end of the paved runway surface, Homendy said. The five fatalities were in a cleaning-services van.
Hundreds of flights were delayed at Florida’s busiest airport following the crash.
Homendy said the plane was a Boeing 767-300 built in 1994 and operated by 21 Air LLC, based in Miami and contracted to Amazon.
It was on its third flight of the day, and arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico.